Our History

The Barnyard

Our ranch began when we first met a llama at the county fair.  We were taken in by how tall they were, and by how calm they were.  We made some inquiries, and soon my kids were enrolled in the 4H program showing llamas!  Shortly thereafter, we acquired our first llama, Indian Peaks Trident, at a silent auction during a llama show.  Suddenly, we were the owners of ‘livestock’.  We couldn’t keep him at our house in the suburbs, so we looked into property.  That led to a 5 acre ranchette in Elizabeth, Colorado.  Within the first year, we added more llamas and chickens. We found a nice 35 acre parcel close by, but soon realized that with the scarcity of water and constant drought conditions in Colorado, we would need to relocate.

In 2017, we decided that it would be great fun to live closer to more of our family based in Idaho.  In 2019, we re-located to a property in Nampa, Idaho.  A big change, we have 7 acres to play with, and have space for our extended family to be nearby.

Our family is conscious of the foods we eat and where they come from; this led us into the goat world.  We did a little searching and found out the many benefits to owning our own dairy goats.  We now milk up to 5 does a year, make our own cheeses and goat milk soap!  Becky enjoys making a variety of Goat Cheeses; the family favorite is ‘squeeky cheese’ and cheesecake!

We currently have 3 llamas, about 30 chickens, & 13 goats.

What Do We Do

The barnyard leads to many other fun activities.  Becky was a 4H leader in Elbert & Douglas Counties in Colorado, and a supervisor in Ada County for the camelid project.  She led a local community club, as well as the Llama & Alpaca project group and Heritage Arts projects.   As the kids aged out of 4-H, now she is focusing on her handmade soap business, RainDancer Soaps, sold via this link: http://raindancersoaps.com. We are cutting down on our herd this summer, due to the fact that our awesome kids are all in college!